Policy

RK Singh told the upper house of the Indian parliament yesterday the nation had added 780 MW of new generation capacity in the last two years. The share of renewables in India’s power mix is rising too, but not fast enough to ensure electricity supply for all.

The lobby group has written to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to create a fund for providing liquidity to State Discoms and thereby clearing the dues to independent solar power producers.

If China could travel back to the 1960s with its 2016 PV generation capacity it could harvest an additional 14 TWh of solar power, according to a study by academics at universities in Switzerland and the Netherlands. With a mixed record for reducing pollution, the country’s solar fleet output appears to be drastically affected by dimmed solar radiation.

India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has determined that flat steel products coated with aluminium and zinc are being dumped by manufacturers in China at dumping margins of 30-50%, South Korea (20-30%) and Vietnam (10-20%). It has proposed anti-dumping duty based on the same to offset material injury to domestic manufacturers.

As the country races to add or upgrade infrastructure for electricity transmission, it needs to take steps to encourage private investments as also lower consumer prices—according to a white paper by Confederation of Indian Industry that includes recommendations on planning, operations and costs for a robust transmission system.

With India losing major solar markets to stiffer competition from cheaper products, it’s high time to change the game by playing on quality and innovation—according to Vikram Solar Chief Financial Officer Rajendra Kumar Parakh, who spoke to pv magazine on the challenge of shrinking markets before Indian solar manufacturers.

The move is the latest attempt by the newly-elected state government to reverse renewable energy commitments made under the previous administration.

After Singapore, India is the second largest revenue generator for the integrated energy player. In year 2018, it earned overall revenues of S$11,634 million (Rs 587 billion), of which S$1685 million (Rs 85 billion) came from power business of Sembcorp Energy India Limited.

Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were the top five states by annual installation, accounting for 60% of the new capacity.

The state-owned power generator has commissioned 63 MW capacity out of the 100 MW solar PV power plant in Tirunelveli district, with Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) as the beneficiary.